The Beast

14. A City Pillaged

c 163 d H AVE I convinced you yet? Do you still think I am crying “Wolf! Wolf!” when there is no wolf, or do you believe that we indeed do have our fabled dragon, to which some of us are daily sacrificed—that lives upon us—that the daughters of the poor are fed to, no less than the sons of the rich? Or do you think that it is, after all, a rather harmless brute whom some of us in Colorado have goaded to a natural rage—a domestic animal properly —a milch cow, perhaps, that has to have its fodder but repays us in the rich cream of prosperity? Do you agree with the candid Freeman that government by corporations is not so bad a thing? Then let me—before I proceed with the story of our struggle for a reform of our election laws—let me add one more instance of what that kind of government entails. Let me show it as I saw it in my court room in the spring of 1906. Let me put you on the bench there to judge it, and decide. A CITY PILLAGED C H A P T E R X I V T h e Be a s t c 164 d Under the constitutional amendment that had granted the city of Denver in 1902 the right to make its own charter, it had been provided that the citizens should dispose of franchises to public service corporations by the direct vote of the taxpaying electors, and not, as in the past, through the City Council. In 1906 the Denver Gas and Electric Company applied for a franchise for twenty years, and the tramway company applied for an extension of some of its franchises, without, however, waiving its claims to a perpetual franchise. The gas company wished also the power to take over the electric plant of a local company that by its charter could not sell except to the city; and the Denver and Northwestern Railroad wished an entrance to the city and a right of way. For these monopoly rights in the streets of Denver nothing was offered to the citizens of Denver except by the gas company , which agreed to pay $50,000 per annum, and by the street railway company, which engaged itself to pay the city $60,000 a year on condition that a certain part of the money be spent on the public parks and for park amusements (to which, of course, the tramway company would carry the crowds!). These franchises were voted upon in the spring elections. Before election day it began to be freely charged that in the offices of the County Assessor and the County Treasurer, where the lists of taxpaying electors were being made up, great numbers of citizens were being assessed upon trivial articles of personal property, so that they might be qualified to vote. It was charged, too, that “fake” tax receipts were being issued to employees of the utility corporations. And a league of citizens, through their lawyers, at once applied to the District Court (Judge Frank T. Johnson* ) for a writ similar to that issued by the Supreme Court in 1904 against the “Savages,” to prevent election frauds. Judge Johnson held that if the Supreme Court could grant such a writ the District Court could do the same. * Judge Johnson did his duty to the community bravely in these cases. The System crushed him at the next election. A C I T Y PI L L AGE D c 165 d He issued it. The elections were held, and on the face of the returns the franchises were granted. But the majority in favour of the grant was very small—ninetynine for the tramway franchise and about five hundred for the gas franchise on the official recount. The tax-receipt frauds were evident. Hundreds of votes had been cast upon taxes of a few cents levied on almost worthless land that lay out on the prairies. And the league of citizens, under Judge Johnson’s writ, applied for an investigation in his court. He decided to hold it. Subpoenas were issued to the boys who had voted on the “tencent ” tax receipts and to the woman in the Treasurer’s office who had made out these receipts. The woman promptly fled from town. The County Treasurer rose from his sick bed to deny...